In reporting their results, developmental psychologist David Lewkowicz and doctoral student Amy Hansen-Tift, of Florida Atlantic University, suggest that this shift in focus may be different for infants who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or are at risk for developing it. Taking this idea a step further, they propose that paying attention to how babies shift their focus during their first year of life might help identify infants at risk for ASD – perhaps before other obvious symptoms emerge. To back their idea, they cite previous research suggesting that 2-year-olds with autism tend to look mostly at the mouths of those speaking to them, while typically developing 2-year-olds focus mostly on eyes.

It’s an intuitively appealing idea. But in truth, past studies have not consistently supported this notion that children with ASD focus less on eyes and more on mouths.

It is true that children with autism tend to pay less attention to social actions such as expressions. However, it’s possible that children with autism, like typical children, show a similar pattern of paying more attention to the mouth when they are learning language.

Given that language delays are common among children with autism, one would predict that this language-acquisition period might be prolonged. In addition one would expect that mouth-versus-eyes gaze patterns would vary among children with ASD depending on each child’s level of language skill.

Fortunately, while we don’t yet know whether eye gaze is a reliable predictor of ASD, research solidly supports the usefulness of other signs for screening toddlers. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that all children receive autism screening at 18 and 24 months of age. One of the AAP’s recommended screening tools is the Modified Checklist for Toddlers, or M-CHAT, which you can access on our website, here. Please also see our Learn the Signs resource page.

Meanwhile, Autism Speaks continues to fund a wealth of research on early screening and diagnosis because evidence suggests that early intervention improves outcomes. You can explore these and other Autism Speaks studies here. This research – like all the resources Autism Speaks develops and offers – is made possible by our families and supporters. Thank you for your support.

For more research news and perspective, please visit our science page.

The M-chat is very good, and I could see how it could have been predictive. My son failed the Denver Developmental Screening test. I remember it like it was yesterday. He could not put the pea “in” the bottle, nor lay the paper “on” the table. He could name any noun but couldn’t figure out verbs, or prepositions. Typically, he understood only visual representations. Autism is a language disability, but it took me a long time to wrap my head around it in order to present hundreds of words to him visually/kinesthetically.

God bless the speech therapists that helped us out here. Of all his teachers, I think they were singularly most helpful in his ability to adapt..

I actually noticed that my son did and does watch my mouth when I would speak to him… But, given that Autistic children are very visual learners and may shy away from eye contact, it does not totally surprise me… My son is Autistic, and just now @ 3.5 is starting to talk. Also, he was screened for Autism @ 18 and 24 mos. He was even evaluated once and wasn’t considered to have a significant delay, so just goes to show you, you never know…

I think this is a very limited way to detect autism. I distinctly remember studying mouths and concentrating on them when I was a kid, and I didn’t turn out to be autistic! It turned out I had a problem with too much wax in my ears when I was young, and it caused me to be a bit hard of hearing, (no one discovered it till I was around 6) so i was unconsciously trying to tell what people were saying by reading their lips. You never know. Check out all the angles!